


Departures

by JaqofSpades



Category: Veronica Mars (Movie 2014), Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: 12 days of Ficmas 2014, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 08:14:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3112547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaqofSpades/pseuds/JaqofSpades
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He has to admit it: they look good together, the stuff of a thousand chick flicks.  The military hero and his little blonde lover.  Problem is, this is Neptune, and life ain't no romcom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Departures

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TroubleScout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TroubleScout/gifts).



> For Troublescout, who created some glorious art for me for my VM/Revolution crossover, Drift Away, and requested Weevil watching Veronica and Logan post-movie in return. Sorry this took so long to eventuate, Troublescout - but I'm hoping it's broken my VM block now :D

Valentina has a giant packet of M&Ms in one hand and tube of Pringles in the other by the time he catches her, her joyous squeal turning into howls of frustration as she realises Daddy's playing bad cop tonight.

“One, Tina. Choose one,” he insists, swallowing his smile. Last thing Jade needs on the plane is a toddler high on chocolate, but he's not too worried. The Pringles will win every time.

“Drum, Daddy,” she says happily, and pushes the packet of candy in between two books. Weevil thanks her and waits until her back is turned before he quickly returns it to the candy display.

That's when he sees them. The obnoxiously white uniform grabs his attention first, and irritation is already pricking at his veins even before Veronica's laugh bubbles up from behind the divider. When they step out into the open, hand-in-hand, his own hands clench into hard, tight fists.

It's a muscle memory, he tells himself. Some sort of weird kneejerk reaction to seeing them together, two idiots who can't leave the past alone. And if it hurts, it's just their ridiculous, fucked up history pressing down on him, a stone in his chest. It can't end well. It never does. Maybe he feels bad for them.

Veronica hooks her hand under Echolls' lapel and drags him closer, standing on tiptoes to plant a kiss at the corner of his mouth. Echolls refuses to let her away though, pulling her flush up against that ridiculous uniform and catching her face in his hands.

“Eli?”

Jade's voice is sharp, and he can still hear the tears in it. She didn't want to go, and nothing he can say will make her understand, so he stopped trying to explain. But she's gotta know it's the last thing he wants, his wife and daughter on the other side of the country. But they'll be safe in Florida, and Neptune – Neptune's a fucking powder keg.

He'd known some bad shit was gonna go down when he opened his eyes to find Veronica with her arm around Jade, talking quietly, and the Sheriff in the corner reading to Valentina. Something in the set of Veronica's jaw told him straight away that something was seriously wrong – and not just bullet-in-his-chest wrong either. It wasn't until Jade took Valentina outside for some fresh air that Veronica got the chance to lay it all out – Celeste Kane had shot him, and then someone had planted another gun in his hand as he was busy bleeding all over the sidewalk. The bitch is claiming self-defence, and Lamb and his goons have the cuffs on standby.

He'd had to shake his head to clear it. He had a shop to run. A family to provide for. This was a nightmare, some sort of mental hangover from his old life. Couldn't actually be happening.

But it was. And the thing is? He'd been waiting for it all along. He's a Navarro, in Neptune, and this is just how things go.

And maybe it's his fault that Jade doesn't understand. Not like he's done any explaining. She knows he used to ride, taken the tour of all his tattoos, seen the house he grew up in. But she still doesn't know Neptune, hasn't had all the rotten seared into her soul like him. And Veronica. Even the jackass, Mr Money and Power himself, who was probably the most fucked up of the lot of them.

Eli can feel his lip curling as he watches them, Echolls pulling Veronica into his body as he looks up at the departures board, obviously on his way out. Keep telling yourself you've escaped, pendejo, he thinks, and flinches at his own bitterness. Maybe it's got something to do with the way he's still gobbling painkillers like candy, and the fact this little trip to the airport will knock him out for the rest of the day. Might have something to do with the fact that Logan fucking Echolls could play the good Samaritan in a hundred towns just like this one and never get a bullet in the chest for his trouble. 

He honestly doesn't know why Echolls is still here. He could'a top-gunned his way outta Neptune years ago, even without the family money, and put it all behind him. Maybe he should be giving the guy points for sticking around. Not like Veronica ever bothered to. She'd jumped at her first chance to run, and even he'd spent some time out of state before the bonds of family and community brought him back. But maybe Echolls had learnt the hard way too – whereever you go, your demons come with you. There's no escaping them. They just lie in wait 'til you least expect it, them they jump out to devour you.

Just like this town. 

That's why he'll do anything to keep Jade and Valentina from being pulled into the great, sucking whirlpool of Neptune's bullshit. He'd grown up making choices between bad and less bad options. The king of fucking compromise. He's had to steal and swindle and bargain with the Devil for every bit of virtue he has, and he doesn't want that for his daughter. He wants her sunny and bright and unbowed, like her mother. And he wants her mother to stay that way, before the mess he's landed them in steals her away.

So he'd bought the tickets online, made sure the return dates could be changed, then got his inlaws all excited about their visit before he'd broken the news to Jade.

“But this is for a week from today - how will you be up and about in time?” she'd said in disbelief, staring at the tickets. He'd just looked at her and waited as she rechecked the names on the tickets..

“No! We're not going without you, Eli. What makes you think I would possibly leave you alone here, still recovering from a gunshot wound? Why do I even need to leave?” she'd asked, incredulous. Disbelief had turned to anger, and then stubbornness, and she'd still been insisting on staying when the boys started showing up, all complicated handshakes and dusty black leather.

Hector, who worked in the shop with him, had already dragged his bike out of storage, and Bootsy was fresh out of jail, and half of his cousins, men she'd thought of as good, honest working types until that day, well, they were all back riding too. And then the kid running the PCH these days shucked his jacket and left it on the chair across from the bed.

“Hope it still fits, hey Boss?” he smirked, and all Eli could do was grimace in return, because the patch hadn't changed any and he could already taste it, ten, fifteen, maybe even 20 of them on their bikes, exhaust fumes and aggression heavy in the air, just waiting for him to declare war.

And he looked at his wife, saw her jaw tight with fury, and remembered his promise to his newborn daughter. He'd never ride again. Never let her be yet another fatherless Navarro, daddy dead or in jail, mama long gone.

And he'd almost managed to break that promise without ever wheeling his chopper out of the garage. It was enough to make a man believe in fate. Or the Devil coming to claim his due. 

So he let her see Weevil for the first time, let the mean back into his stare and command snap in his voice. “You're fucking going,” he'd said, telling himself he didn't care, couldn't care, if his little girl is listening to him curse. He just needs her away from here, safe and happy and innocent for a few more years.

And that's when Veronica waltzes back in.

She's already standing different, already looking at him for a long, hard moment, calculating, assessing, before she swoops in for the hug, first Jade, and then, more gently, him. She picks Valentina up and tickles her, filling the air with the sort of light chatter that reminds him of every sorority girl caper she ever ran, or maybe his old favourite, Pan High dreamgirl Betty. 

Weevil's not the only one making a comeback, he realises, and if he does this thing, he won't be doing it alone. He wants to be glad, wants it to be uncomplicated, but … he's thinking like Weevil know, and it's all a little too convenient. He'd seen her with Echolls at the reunion. Heard all about that fucker's problems, and he knows their form. He beckons, she can't resist the call, but no way in hell would she ever be honest enough with herself to admit to it.

But good old Eli's in the hospital, and it'll be the noble poor taking on the corrupt bourgeousie all over again, and Veronica Mars, crusader, wants a piece of that. It'll help her forget all about why she really came back, and how fuckin' patethic her on-off-on thing with Echolls really is, and how she just can't manage to kill that piece of her which lives for this high-drama shit.

And drama it is, too. Veronica has turned her face up to Echolls, and he's caught her lips on a laugh as if intent on fulfilling every cliché of the passionate airport farewell. Within seconds they are kissing in earnest, hungry for each other, eyes closed and lips lingering even as they start to move apart, her hand still clutching at his sleeve as he draws little circles on her hip.

(He wonders if she still tastes the same, or whether that goodbye kiss they'd shared was tainted by their tears. It probably shouldn't have happened – she'd wrapped her arms around his middle then leaned up to plant a kiss on his cheek – but they'd been dancing around each other three years by then, and he knew he might never see her again, so he'd brought their lips together for a proper kiss, the one he'd been dreaming about since they were 17. She'd made a little sound of surprise against his mouth – really, Veronica?– but in the end, it was her who opened her mouth, her who snugged in tight to his body, and her who didn't want to let go. For a hell of a long time he'd tortured himself with that kiss, the fact that it felt more like hello than goodbye, but reality set in as the years ticked past – and then he met Jade.)

Jade, who catches his line of sight when he's not quick enough to look away, a watery smile breaking through her tears. “Isn't that your friend, Veronica?” she murmurs, and he just nods, not sure his vocal cords can be trusted right now.

“Lucky girl,” Jade smirks, obviously not recognising the jackass when he's not busy throwing punches. Or maybe she did, and doesn't care. Hopeless romantic, his girl, and he has to admit it: they look good together, the stuff of a thousand chick flicks. The military hero and his little blonde lover. Problem is, this is Neptune, and life ain't no romcom. 

In this town, everything's shot in shades of grey and Veronica Mars is the closest thing they get to a hero. He's not sure what that makes Echolls, but it doesn't matter anyway.

He's leaving, just like Jade and Valentina, and when the trumpets sound, it'll be Weevil and Veronica riding into battle together. Crusader girl and her faithful knight in questionably provenanced black leather.

And he'll tell himself, every single lonely night and every too-intimate stakeout and every time she doesn't shut him down as quick as she should, that this is just Neptune, pulling them together. Making them gravitate towards their equally stained kin. He just has to remember that, to remind himself to love her the way he loves this goddamn cesspit of a city.

Guardedly. Always suspicious. With a hidden little corner of his heart. And this time, he'll be the one ready to leave at the drop of a hat, because as soon as they're done, he's out. Forever. 

(Again.)

_fin_

*

_Disclaimer: This is a transformative work (fan fiction) as protected under the fair use provisions of international copyright law. I am not profiting from this work, nor do I make any claims to, or intend any infringement on, the intellectual properties held by the rights owner._


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